Curtains

August 16th, 2006
Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles
Musical

Music and Lyrics by Kander and Ebb (additional lyrics by Kander & Rupert Holmes, who also wrote the book).

Starring David Hyde Pierce (Niles from Frasier) and three of Broadway's solid best, Debra Monk, Jason Daniely and Karen Ziemba. It's a murder comedy about a production that is struggling to get off it's feet while dealing with murders happening right and left, the squabbles of a husband and wife composer/lyricist, and a dectective who happens to love Musical Theatre. The show's creative team and backers try to save it from certain box office failure while the detective (Pierce) helps out, and also solves the murders.

We loved the cast, and thought additional performances by Jill Paice and Edward Hibbard (you'd also recognize him from Frasier) were fun. The real highlights for me: hearing Jason Daniely sing (god, he can sing!), and thoroughly enjoying Debra Monk take command of the stage and two of the show's best songs. David Hyde Pierce is always enjoyable, and he's quite affable, polished and solid in this show. He's a delight to see. But the theatre geek in me can't help but imagine the likes of Mark Kudisch in the role.

The music is solid, the lyrics fantastic, and my gut tells me that, although many of the melodies didn't grab me right away, the songs would grow on me. I esp. loved "Show People," "It's a Business" and "He did it!" INHO, this show is far more solid and tightly put together than the last world premiere at Ahmanson (Drowsey Chaperone), and deserves to go to Broadway. Enjoyable and fun evening of theatre!